Notarial Services no longer available in Al Khobar

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

From January 2014, all notarial work requested from the Consulate General in Jeddah and the British Trade Office in Al Khobar will be undertaken in Riyadh

Following a review of the consular services offered by our Embassies and Consulates overseas, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has made changes to the notarial and documentary services which it offers. This means we will no longer be able to provide these services at the British Trade Office in Al Khobar or Jeddah.

In the past, these services have included:

Witnessing signatures

Taking oaths

Administering affirmations or statutory declarations

Making certified copies of documents

Preparing other consular certificates (e.g. No Objection letters).

Following the recent review, our Missions overseas are working to identify alternative providers who can offer these services instead. Where private sector alternatives exist (e.g. notary publics, lawyers, solicitors etc) our staff will no longer provide these services and will re-direct customers to an alternative provider. We will be able to give you list of local lawyers who will be able to undertake this work.

In addition, from 01 October 2013 we have stopped providing the above services to Commonwealth citizens in countries where they do not have any diplomatic representation, unless there is a clear UK connection to the document or service. We have also stopped providing the following services to those citizens, again unless there is a clear UK connection to the document or service:

Legalising Commonwealth documents

Preparing Certificates of No Impediment or similar documents.

These changes are part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s 2013-2016 Consular Strategy, which was launched by the British Foreign Secretary in April 2013. The changes will help make better use of our scarce resources and modernise the way we deliver these services. This will allow us to concentrate on front-line consular work, providing more support to our most vulnerable customers including, for example, minors, the elderly, people with mental health problems, and victims of serious crime abroad.

You can find more information about the services we offer on our website